Lab Programs

The Aquarium is an excellent resource for educators and students. We offer grade-appropriate programs aligned to state and national standards as well as to the national Ocean Literacy principles. Programs are hands-on and designed so that they augment your classroom instruction. Pre- and post-curriculum is also available on the Teacher Resources page to make the most of your lab experience.

All programs are available Monday through Friday at 10:00, 11:30 and 2:00. All programs must be arranged in advance by calling 541-867-3474.

Classroom Lab Programs

• For 10 to 40 students per program with 1 chaperon for every 5 students
• 60 minutes long ("Coastal Close-ups" are 30-45 minutes)
• $45 fee for each lab program
  
  

Behind the Scenes Tours

This one-hour tour takes high school students and teachers behind-the-scenes to discover all about the science of animal care, training and water quality.

• Locations include the water quality laboratory, jellyfish culturing area, Aviary and Aquarist kitchen, the top of the Passage of the Deep shark exhibit and to our seal, sea lion and sea otter training areas.
• $9 per student. Five to 15 students and 3 chaperons.
  
• 60 minutes long

Pre-school through 3rd Grade Programs

Coastal Close-up: Sea Stars and Urchins
Grades PreK – 1st: 30-45 minutes; 10-25 students plus chaperons
Have fun with live animals and costumes while you take an in-depth look at the lives of sea stars and urchins!

Tidepool Talk
Grades K – 2nd: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
Tide pools are full of life. Students compare their own adaptations to those of four tidepool animals, learning how they eat, move, see and protect themselves.

Sea Cycles
Grades 2nd – 3rd: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
The end of every cycle is only a beginning. Students will explore four ocean cycles while they dress a puffin in its breeding plumage, take a trip with a gray whale, get to know members of a kelp forest food cycle and explore the stages of a crab’s life cycle.

What’s for Lunch?
Grades 1-3: 60 minutes; 10-40 Students plus chaperons
In this introduction to marine food chains, students will explore four ocean habitats and learn about a food chain from each. Using live animals and marine biofacts, students will discover where some sea animals head when they have a snack attack!

4th through 5th Grade programs

Fins, Flippers and Flukes
Grades 3-5: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
Marine mammals’ success in the ocean depends on special adaptations for keeping warm, finding food and communicating in the dark, cold ocean. Focusing on sea otters, seals, sea lions and whales, students will examine fur, blubber, bones and teeth and learn how marine mammals are adapted for life at sea.

Feeding Frenzy
Grades 4-5: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
It’s an eat-or-be-eaten life in the sea. Through close-up animal observation, students take a look at the complexities of marine food webs and see what happens when humans join the web.

Forests Beneath the Sea
Grades 4-6: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
Kelp plants form thick, beautiful forests beneath the sea. While handling and even tasting kelp, students will compare kelp forests with forests on land, observe some of the animals that make up kelp communities and discover the many uses of commercially harvested kelp.

6th through 8th Grade Programs

Conservation Can’t Wait!
Grades 6-8: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
Oil spills are only the beginning when it comes to marine disasters. Through hands-on activities, students will understand how human action causes pollution and how it affects marine animals.

Ocean Commotion
Grades 6-8: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
An animal has to be tough to survive the harsh conditions on Oregon’s rocky shores. Students investigate marine invertebrates from four phyla and how they’ve adapted to this rough-and-tumble environment.

Ocean Machine
Grades 6-8: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
Take all the fish out of the sea, and it would still touch our lives in more ways than we realize. Students will be introduced to oceanography with discussions of the tides, ocean circulation and global warming and will learn why the health of the marine environment is so important.

9th through 12th Grade Programs

Life Without Light
Grades 9-12: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
It’s dark, it’s cold, the food chains begin with chemicals—but animals thrive. Students will watch video from the deep sea, examine real animals brought up from hydrothermal vents, conduct experiments, learn about bathymetric mapping and more.

Phantastic Phyla
Grades 9-12: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
Spines, shells, tentacles and joints help define four intriguing invertebrate phyla. Working with live animals, students explore the world of echinoderms, molluscs, cnidarians and arthropods and learn about taxonomy and identification.

Behind the Scenes Tour
Grades 9-12: 60 minutes; 5 to 15 students, 3 chaperons
How does one give a dental exam to a 500 pound California sea lion? How do you feed a five-foot shark that has row after row of razor-sharp teeth? Students will travel behind the scenes to discover what it takes to keep the Oregon Coast Aquarium animals happy and healthy.

Mixed-Age Programs

It’s a Rough Life
Mixed Grades K-6: 60 minutes; 10-40 students plus chaperons
The rocky shore is a tough neighborhood. Students will learn about the remarkable ways tide pool residents are adapted to weather the extremes of life on the rocks.